I almost bought a 76' Mach 1 Mustang II when I first got my license. it was black with dark tan interior, and a gold stripes going across the hood.
I wanted it because it was a 76' and I was born in 76'.

Once they started to put some V-8 power under the hood, they performed pretty well. They are not great collector cars, at least not yet, and probably will never have the following as the 1st gen, especially earlier, Mustangs, but it would be an interesting car to own.

I had a friend that had a 75 (?) Mustang II Cobra with the 302, having driven earlier model Mustangs with 302's I thought it having a tiny body, it would scream, but being a California vehicle is was so loaded down with smog devices he was only getting around 150HP and less than 18 miles a gallon, it ran OK but far from a screamer. The mid to late 70's wasn't about performance for Mustang.

The Mustang II notchbacks are cute and not bad looking (Ghia landau roofs notably excluded), perhaps because they share a very similar window profile to the '71-73 Coupes (and probably the main reason our cars often get dismissed as II's - that, and the general proximity of year).

That said, if Ford had put more effort in revising the Pinto platform to suit the II - and thrown that silly, Japanese rear quarter and window profile out the window, they could have had a little compact without losing one bit of Mustang muscle:

Not many modifications here, but major ones:

Front wheel moved forward - improved the looks more than anything else

The sagging quarter panel feature line and taillight panels have been moved up to create proper hips to the fastback

Wheel arches enlarged, tires and rims enlarged 1" each in diameter to fill the larger areas

Rear quarter window reshaped (of course)

Side scoops vertically enlarged

Front windscreen top edge lowered 1/2"

I'm particularly fond of how the rear quarter window blends the top curve of the '69-70 quarter window with the lower kickup of the '71-73's.

Jim and Jutta;155264 Wrote:I had a friend that had a 75 (?) Mustang II Cobra with the 302, having driven earlier model Mustangs with 302's I thought it having a tiny body, it would scream, but being a California vehicle is was so loaded down with smog devices he was only getting around 150HP and less than 18 miles a gallon, it ran OK but far from a screamer. The mid to late 70's wasn't about performance for Mustang.